In the sermon 'Partaking in the Blood of the Prophets,' Jason Dohm addresses the condemnation of the scribes and Pharisees by Jesus as recorded in Matthew 23:29-36. Jesus accuses these religious leaders of hypocrisy for claiming they would not have killed the prophets as their ancestors did, yet their actions reveal the same spirit of rebellion. The sermon emphasizes the importance of learning from the negative examples of forefathers, highlighting the patience and mercy of God who sent prophets to a stubborn people despite their history of persecution. Dohm warns against the hypocrisy of outwardly honoring past prophets while rejecting living messengers and stresses the grave consequence of rejecting Christ, the only remedy for sin. As the sermon progresses, Dohm draws parallels between scriptural narratives and modern attitudes, urging believers to reflect on their own responses to prophetic truth and the danger of theological complacency.

Today's text is Matthew 23 verses 29 through 36. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous and say, If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up then the measure of your father's guilt.

Serpents, brood of vipers, how can you escape the condemnation of hell? Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes, some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city. That on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barakiah whom you murdered between the temple and the altar Assuredly I say to you all these things will come upon this generation Oh great God Please bless this time that your truth will be preached through Jason That your spirit would fill this place and open eyes and ears Will reveal the sin in our own hearts would cause repentance would cause salvation and many and cause those that are already your sons and daughters to love and enjoy you more. In Jesus' name, Amen. The title of the sermon is Partaking in the Blood of the Prophets.

It comes directly from the text. It's the opposite of what the scribes and the Pharisees are saying, which is, no, we wouldn't have done that. We wouldn't have partaken with our fathers in the blood of the prophets. But Jesus is having none of that. And in this text, He's going to implicate these leaders in the blood of all the prophets from the beginning of time up until their time.

Contrary to their assertions that they wouldn't have participated in that, Jesus is going to say, oh yes, you're just like them. You're the sons of these men in more ways than one. We are moving into Matthew 24. Matthew 24 is about the judgment of the nation of Israel. Many weeks ago, Gary Orr said that as he's been reading through these texts, he sees it as legal proceedings where chapter 23 is the indictment, is it a reading of the charges, which you can definitely see in Matthew 23.

And is the verdict Jesus is definitely pronouncing these woes. He's definitely announcing that they're guilty. He's giving the verdict. And then when we get to chapter 24, it's going to be the sentencing phase. I think this is exactly right.

I think this is a really good framework for understanding what Jesus is doing here. The indictment, the reading of the charges, and the verdict are here in chapter 23. In chapter 24, we enter the sentencing phase where Jesus is going to say, this is what's going to happen to you guilty party. Next week we will finish chapter 23 and then the week after that on the 28th of October, this is wide end harvest weekend. Scott and Dan will still be in Asheville.

I'll be coming back and we'll be having a joint service. And I'll be preaching some variation of what I have preached at the conference. So it will be a joint service. It will be at Tuxedo Junction two weeks from today. Then the three weeks after that, we're actually going to depart from our sequential exposition and there will be three topical sermons.

They'll all be very closely related to what we've been looking at in Matthew. For sure one of them is going to be a topical sermon on hell. A dozen times probably in Matthew We've had passages that dealt with hell and we've just glanced off of them. We've been on the surface of them, but we've never really developed the doctrine of hell. So we're going to take a week to do that.

Then there will be two other topical sermons to be determined. And then after that, at the end of November, we'll start into Matthew 24. We wanted to all be in town and all be together. That's Scott, Dan, and myself. We all wanted to be here when we start teaching on Matthew 24.

So that's the reason for those topical sermons. This week is the final woe. In Matthew 23, Jesus pronounces eight consecutive woes against the scribes and the Pharisees. And this is the last one. Jesus has just been piling up condemnation against the scribes and the Pharisees for their blindness and for their hypocrisy.

They are so full of blindness. They have all this sinfulness that as leaders is bubbling up in their heart and they're leading the people into it and they can't even see it. And this has made them hypocrites. It's made them stage players, actors who wear a mask and appear one way in what they present to the public. But inside there's something completely different.

So Let's get right to the text. I want to begin by looking at verses 29-33 in depth, and then we'll look at the last section. In verses 29-33, Jesus condemns them. He begins as He has begun. Seven out of the other eight begin the same way.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. He begins this woe the same way. He condemns them for decorating the monuments of the righteous as a show of honor of those who have gone before, the prophets and the righteous men who have gone before. So it's an outward display of honor. I'm going to decorate your tomb because I honor you.

And they're expressing, ostensibly expressing, unqualified appreciation for the righteous of the Old Testament, the history of Israel, and the prophets. No qualifications. I appreciate Moses and Elijah and Jeremiah and Micah and, and, and. Without qualification, I appreciate them. I am ready to put flowers on their monuments, and I'm ready to build their tombs.

Meanwhile, so many of these righteous men that have been sent by God to be a blessing out of God's mercy have been murdered by their forefathers. God has sent these men to warn. It is an act of mercy. Every prophet that you see in the Old Testament is an act of mercy of a God who is long suffering, of a God who wants to confront His people in their sin and wake them up so that they will see their sinfulness, so that they will turn and not be destroyed. And yet time after time after time after time after time, what happens?

They're not appreciated for the warnings that God has put in their mouth, but they are persecuted, they are stoned, they are beheaded, they are mistreated. Think about our murdered ambassador. There were these four men in Libya who were murdered. What were they murdered for? Were they murdered because they were there to do badly to the people of Libya?

Were they murdered because they were wronging the people there? No. And yet, we have something in the modern context to understand what has happened. What are the thanks that our ambassador received from the people of Libya? The United states helped to liberate them from a dictator.

And this man died even so. And so it was with the Old Testament prophets. Men who were sent to do good to the people of God were murdered in many, many cases by the people that they were showing mercy towards. What do the scribes and the Pharisees do with this? They say, if we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.

So these men who are wallowing in the sins of their own day, who are actually leading the people in the sins of their own day, fancy that they would have swum upstream. If they had just been born in another century, if they had just been born in another millennium, they wouldn't have wallowed in those sins. They would have swum upstream. They would have gone against the tide and not been like that. Meanwhile, they are up to the neck in the sins of their own day.

Jesus has been speaking parables about this. Just this thing in the previous two chapters. In Matthew 21, Jesus tells a parable of a landowner who plants a vineyard and he puts everything in place for the success of this vineyard and he leases it to vine dressers. He puts it into the hands of tenants. And when it's time for him to receive some of the fruit, he sends wave after wave after wave after wave of servant.

And they are progressively treated more badly. And then what does he do? He says, I have a son. They'll respect my son. And he sends his son and they say, there's the heir.

Let's kill the heir and seize the inheritance. So Jesus turns to the chief priests and the elders, he is the one that this parable is to, and he turns to them and he says, what will the landowner do to these tenants of his? And they are forced to confess that he will destroy those wicked men miserably. Out of their own mouths the righteous judgment comes. So Jesus has been putting these leaders of Israel into the flow of history and showing them through these parables exactly where they stand in the flow of the history of Israel.

Mistreating, mistreating, mistreating, mistreating, culmination in what happens with the Son. What happens with the Son is just the end of a line, but it's the culmination of it. This is exactly what Jesus is saying in this text. The next chapter, Matthew 22, Jesus tells the parable of a king who is arranging a marriage for his son. He has got the wedding feast ready and he sends his servants out to call those who have been invited to the wedding, only they're not interested in coming to the wedding feast.

Just like the previous parable, they're mistreating these servants who were just coming to invite them to a wedding feast. What kind of madness is this that you would mistreat a servant who is coming to invite you to a wedding feast. But in the parable, this is what is happening. At the end, Jesus says the king, when he hears of this, will send his armies out to destroy those wicked people. So again, Jesus is setting these scribes and Pharisees in the flow of history, helping them to see that they are not disconnected in any way from this flow of history, but they are the culmination of it.

They are the most guilty, not only are they not guilty of the crimes that their fathers have committed, but they are the most guilty. Which prophet is as blameless as Jesus Christ? Which prophet is as pure, as holy, as completely faithful to the mission as Jesus Christ? None of them. As godly as these men were, as committed as they were to bringing forth to the people what God has given them to say.

None of them compares to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so they are not less guilty. They are not not guilty. They are the most guilty because they have the Messiah, the Son of God in their presence. They do just as their fathers have done.

Jesus says in verse 31, "...you are witnesses against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. In verse 30, he has spoken of their fathers. He is actually quoting the scribes and Pharisees who, when exonerating themselves, talk about their fathers. In verse 30, when Jesus is quoting them as they let themselves off the hook. When they talk about their fathers, they are talking about physical fathers, familial fathers, genealogical fathers, bloodline.

That's what they are talking about. We are just their relatives. But in verse 31 when Jesus talks about them being sons, He is not saying, you are just flesh and blood. He is saying, you are flesh and blood and so much more. You are just like them.

You have the same spirit as them. You have the same disposition of them. You are their sons in every way. It's not just bloodline that Jesus is talking about as He is condemning them in verse 31. He is saying that they have the same spirit as those who martyred the prophets and the righteous in the Old Testament.

Now, in what way are they testifying against themselves? In what way are they testifying against themselves? Do you know that These are the same men who are already plotting how they can kill Jesus. The plans are already in motion. The physical act is not going to happen until the end of this week.

But All the plans are in motion to kill Jesus now. This is the way in which they are testifying against themselves. Listen to what Jesus says in John chapter 5. In John chapter 5 verses 45 through 47, Jesus says this, Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, Moses, in whom you trust.

For if you believed Moses, you would believe me. For he wrote about me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?" These men, if they knew where Moses was buried, and they don't, we know that. God would not allow that. He hid Moses' body.

But if they knew where Moses was, They would be decorating his tomb too. And they would be saying, we honor Moses. And they would be showing their unqualified appreciation for Moses. Jesus in John 5 says, not so, that's a lie. If you believed Moses, you'd believe me because Moses spoke of me.

But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? Turn your Bibles to Acts chapter 7. This is one of the most phenomenal sermons in all of the New Testament. It is Stephen. It is a sermon preached by a deacon.

We are going to have to have one of those one of these days. It is a sermon preached by a deacon. And it's phenomenal. And Stephen says something that is so helpful in shedding light on our text today. This is in Acts chapter 7 beginning in verse 51.

Acts chapter 7 verse 51. Stephen is talking to exactly the same audience that Jesus is addressing. He is in Jerusalem just like Jesus is and he is addressing the leaders of the people just like Jesus is. Here's what Stephen says in Acts 7.51. You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears.

You always resist the Holy Spirit as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the just one, Of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it. Stephen here brings a two-fold charge against these same men that Jesus is addressing in Matthew 23. What is that?

The ones who foretold of Jesus. All the prophets did what? They were pointing forward to Jesus. How many times has Matthew quoted the prophets to say, Jesus is this, Jesus is this, Jesus is this, Jesus is this. It's been everywhere in Matthew.

The prophets were pointing forward to Jesus Christ, and yet, what did God's people do? God's external people, Israel, what did they do to these prophets? They killed them. So Stephen is pointing right and he said, just like those men killed the ones who foretold of Jesus Christ, you came right behind them and did exactly what they did, and you fulfilled. You fulfilled it all.

Secondly, he says they received the law by direction of angels and have not kept it. He is saying exactly what Jesus said in John 5. You have all this law, all this law that points to Christ. All these words of God that have set the stage for the culmination of history. And what's that?

It is the coming of the Son of God to redeem His people. That's what all of history has been pointing to. That's what all of history has been leading up to. And then when the critical time comes, these experts in the law cannot see it. They're blind.

And they do just as their fathers have done, and reject God, reject the counsels of God, and martyr the righteous. They say they love Moses. Liars. They don't love Moses. Moses talked about Jesus.

Moses said there would be a prophet like him who would come and be heard by the true people of God. They don't love Moses. They say they love the prophets, liars. They don't love the prophets. How many of the prophets Can you go and find a star in your Bible, if you have one of those kind of Bibles, which just marks out messianic prophecies, prophecies about Jesus, about the coming of the Messiah, about God sending His Son to redeem the people.

And this is the hypocrisy of it. That they act like they honor these Old Testament saints. Act like they appreciate the prophets, but they don't at all. They've not listened to one of the prophets. They don't really appreciate any of the prophets because the things that the prophets have spoken about, Jesus Christ has been cast aside.

They are making plans to kill Him. Ryle says, they love dead saints, but they can see no beauty in a living Christ. Oh, we love the dead saints! Weren't they wonderful? Weren't they godly?

A living Christ right in front of them. No beauty in that. Verse 32, Jesus says, Fill up then the measure of your father's guilt. Fill it all the way up to the brim. Fill the guilt all the way up to overflowing.

NIV renders it this way. Go ahead then and complete what your ancestors started. Go ahead. Finish the job. Complete what your ancestors started.

That's not a very good translation by the way, but it's reasonably good commentary. Go ahead then and complete what your ancestors started. Observe the patience of God. Don't miss the mercy and the patience of God in this text. God is patient.

Think of all the prophets that are under consideration in Matthew 23, all the prophets that have been martyred. After the second or third one had been martyred, how many more prophets would you have sent? To a stubborn people, to a stiff-necked people, to a rebellious people. How many? If your third prophet had been killed, how many would you have sent on his heels?

How many has God sent? Three more, five more, twenty more? Understand. See. Don't miss the patience of God, the mercy of God in this text.

He does not deal with us as our sins deserve. He is slow to anger. He is abounding in mercy. But when the cup of guilt is filled all the way up to the brim, and only God knows when it is full to the brim, then He acts. And it is too late.

And who can stay his hand? No one can stay his hand. When the cup is full to the brim, it's too late. When it's full, you can't say, we repent now. It's too late.

It's to the full measure and God is going to act then. And He knows when that is. That's the tricky part. You don't know when that is. I don't know when that is, but that should cause us to tremble in our spirits that we do not presume upon the mercy of God.

Yes, He is patient. Yes, He does not deal with us as our sins deserve. Yes, He is slow to mercy. He is slow to anger and he is abounding in mercy. But there is a point where Jesus says, it is full to the brim and he is going to act.

That is why Isaiah 55 says, Seek the Lord while he may be found. Turn from your sins. Turn from your sins while he may be found. The Jews coming into the promised land is the story of this. Guilt being full to the brim.

You remember that? In Genesis 15, God is speaking to Abram. So that tells you how early we are. His name is still Abram. He is not even Abraham yet.

And God is speaking to him. And he is telling him what is going to happen in the future. He is telling him, God is telling Abram how he is going to work through his descendants. He talks about their coming into Egypt, their being enslaved to Egypt, and then their being brought back into the promised land. Abram will only ever own a tomb there.

He will only ever own the cave of Machpelah, where he will be buried and his wives and some of his sons will be buried. But God in Genesis 15 is telling him that his descendants will be brought in and will be given all of this land. Here is verse 16. This is Genesis 15 verse 16. But in the fourth generation they, his descendants, shall return here for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.

In other words, it's going to take some generations for the guilt, the iniquity of the Amorites to come up to the top of the cup. The cup is not full yet. Your descendants can't have this land yet because the cup is not full to the brim of their guilt. Now, in Deuteronomy, when the people are on the cusp of being brought into the Promised Land, this is Deuteronomy 9 verse 4, and Moses returns to this exact same subject. Listen to Deuteronomy 9 verse 4, Do not think in your heart after the Lord your God has cast them out before you, these people who have inhabited the promised land, saying, because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land.

But it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you. The events of Deuteronomy when Jesus brings the descendants of Abraham into the promised land are a fulfillment of what God told Abram in Genesis 15. That cup is not full of iniquity yet, but a day is coming when the cup is full and they will be judged and you will throw them out of this land. And when it happens, don't say it was because of our righteousness. It was because of the wickedness of the people in this land.

The cup got full of iniquity, and God ran out of patience for the rebellion and the stiff-necked refusal to repent. And he said, No more. And the people of God come in and possess the promised land. Jesus is announcing in Matthew 23 that Time is up for Israel. Time is up.

They've had generation after generation after generation of prophets and warnings. They have the oracles of God and they will not repent. And time is up. And Jesus is announcing that in chapter 23. The killing of the Messiah and then their treatment of King Jesus' church in the few years after that means time's up.

It's the filling up of the guilt of their fathers. It's the filling up of the cup and then he will act. In verse 33, Jesus says, Serpents brew to vipers. It's exactly what John the Baptist calls them in chapter 3. It's exactly what Jesus calls them in chapter 12.

So this has been brewing since the earliest times. These men have been identified as serpents, as a brood of vipers since the earliest chapters of Matthew. Now snakes are bad. Isn't that universal? We don't need an extended debate on whether snakes are bad.

You don't have to know the Old Testament well to know what Jesus is trying to communicate here. Snakes are bad. These men by comparison are bad, but there is particular significance here as well. There is a serpent in Genesis chapter 3. There is a serpent there.

He is cursed by God for his involvement in the fall of man. The two lines of seed are established there. There is the righteous seed, the seed of the woman, and in Genesis 3 you will find a capital S there. The righteous seed of the woman is Jesus Christ. And then there is the seed of the serpent.

There are going to be generations that flow out from the serpent. And there are two seeds that you can trace through history, the redeemed and those who are sons of the devil. And Jesus is pointing and saying, you're the other line of seed. You're seed of the serpent. Brood of vipers.

Offspring of vipers. You're the other kind of seed. You're sons of the devil. And Jesus says that in other places. Finally, we have the most terrifying words of a terrifying chapter.

Hasn't this been a terrifying chapter? To see the woes against blindness and hypocrisy. The whole chapter is terrifying. To me, these are the most terrifying words of this terrifying chapter. How can you escape the condemnation of hell?

How can you escape the damnation, the sentence of eternal punishment and agony? How can you escape? There is an answer. That is a question that all of us should grapple with and deal with. And there is an answer to that question about how we can escape the condemnation of hell.

But it's receiving Christ. So they've exempted themselves from the one right answer to this question. The one right answer to this question. The one right answer to this question is, I've trusted in Christ. And the fundamental thing that they are doing is outright rejection of Christ.

And so they have exempted themselves. And there is no other answer. If they will not receive Christ, there is no other hope, there is no other answer from them. Rejecting Christ is the sin that can never be forgiven. All the other sins can be forgiven, but rejection of Christ can never be forgiven because He is the only remedy for sin.

If you won't have the remedy for sin, then there is no hope for you. Verses 34-36. Let's read those together. Matthew 23-34. Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes.

Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city. That on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Barakiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Assuredly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation." Jesus speaks prophetically and He tells these scribes and Pharisees and the multitudes that are standing around and his disciples who are listening that he is going to send prophets and wise men and scribes. Now don't think wrongly about scribes. NIV renders this Greek word, teachers of the law.

So everywhere we've seen scribes in the NIV, it's teachers of the law and it's a good translation. Both are very appropriate. So we're talking about teachers of the law. Jesus is going to continue to send prophets and wise men, men who understand the Scriptures, understand God, and understand man. And he is going to send teachers of the law and teachers of the gospel, and they are going to be treated this way.

Some of them will be killed, some of them will be crucified. Tradition has it that Peter was crucified upside down. We see James martyred in Acts. We see Stephen martyred in Acts. We see Paul stoned in Acts, although they didn't get him.

He got up and went right back into town when they stoned him. We see the persecution from city to city. Everything that Jesus is saying prophetically in Matthew 23 we see played out throughout the course of the book of Acts. And Jesus is saying all of this is just going to solidify the judgment. It's going to Round out, finish the judgment.

It's going to be the last nail in the coffin. You're familiar with that expression? This is what Jesus is doing. The last nail in the coffin. Verse 35, He says that the blood from A to Z will be on you.

Abel to Zechariah. All the blood. Now those are Hebrew names and they are speaking Greek, so It doesn't really apply, but it makes great for sermon fodder. But the point is, the first martyr to the last martyr, all the martyrs. In the parallel passage in Luke, where Luke is recording these same accounts, Luke 11 verse 50 records that Jesus says this, that the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation.

That's the meaning. He's giving the scope. The first to the last. All of them from the foundation of the world until now. Abel is indeed the first one.

Genesis 4 is the first murder. Abel is a righteous man and Cain kills him. Zechariah is indeed the last one. I'm going to say that the Zechariah in 2 Chronicles 24 is the same Zechariah in the Minor Prophets. I have no idea how tall he was, but he was minor.

So 2 Chronicles 24 records A. Zechariah. In 2 Chronicles 24 it says he's the son of Jehoiada. It's not hard to believe that one man has two names. God loves to change the name of people.

Abram to Abraham, Jacob to Israel, Levi to Matthew, and on and on. So I'm just going to contend that 2 Chronicles 24, which has Zechariah the son of Jehoiada, is the same Zechariah son of Barakiah who has written the book by that name. In our Bible, 2 Chronicles is right in the middle of the Old Testament. Not so for the Jews. Second Chronicles is the last book of the Old Testament to a Jew.

They arranged the Old Testament differently than we do. So What do we say when we want to say something is the same all throughout the Scriptures? We say from Genesis to Revelation. Well, Jesus is saying the same thing here. From Genesis to 2 Chronicles, Because in the Bible and the Word of God that he has in his hands, Genesis is the first book and 2 Chronicles is the last.

The martyrdom of Zechariah in 2 Chronicles is towards the end of the last book of the Old Testament that a Jew would hold in his hands. Now, there is significance to Jesus and his circumstances in both Abel and Zechariah. Abel, the first martyr, is recorded in Genesis 4 and he is murdered by his brother Cain. John in 1 John 3 speaks of Cain and Abel. Here is what he says, 1 John 3 verse 12.

Cain was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brothers were righteous. Cain was of the evil one. That's just what Jesus is saying about the scribes and Pharisees.

Serpents, brood of vipers, they're just like Cain. And why did Cain murder Abel? Was it because he was a blasphemer? That's what they're going to say about Jesus. You're a blasphemer.

You're exercising authority that's never been given to you. Just a sham. All of it. Why is Jesus being murdered? Because his works are righteous and theirs are unrighteous.

When you pull back the veil from all the reasons that they give why Jesus must die, those are all lies. That's not why they are killing Jesus. It is because their works were evil and Jesus' were righteous. Their sons of the devil, just like Cain was, and they can't stand to have a righteous man come and confront them in their evil. What about Zechariah, the last of the martyrs recorded in the Old Testament?

Listen to Zechariah 1, verses 2 through 4. The Lord has been very angry with your fathers, says Zechariah. Therefore, say to them, Thus says the Lord of hosts, Return to me, says the Lord of hosts. And I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. Do not be like your fathers." This is Zechariah 1.

Do not be like your fathers. To whom the former prophets preached, saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts, turn now from your evil ways and your evil deeds, but they did not hear nor heed me, says the Lord." The book of Zechariah opens up talking about just what Jesus is speaking of here in Matthew 23. Isn't this amazing? Zechariah says, God sent your fathers, the prophets, to turn them back but they would not listen. Finally, in verse 36, Jesus says, all these things will come upon this generation.

He's been speaking to scribes and Pharisees, Scribes and Pharisees, Scribes and Pharisees, Scribes and Pharisees. And now he turns to the multitudes and says, these things will come upon this generation. All these things will come upon this generation. The blind are leading the blind and both are heading into the ditch. This is the perfect entree to chapter 24 where Jesus is going to pronounce the sentence and say what is going to happen to all this nation that would not repent.

The people share in the guilt. The people share in the judgment because they would not repent. Now, application. I've saved a lot of time for application. And I have three questions to ask in the way of applications.

Three questions to ask in the way of application. Question number one. Are you learning from your forefathers? This text, this condemnation is about learning from your forefathers. The scribes and Pharisees did not learn from their forefathers, are you?

Turn to Psalm 78. Turn in your Bibles to Psalm 78. Psalm 78 is the Psalm of Asaph. It's the second longest psalm in the Bible. Psalm 119 is the longest.

Psalm 78 is number two. How many verses? Seventy-two. It's a history lesson. Asaph has given it so people will learn from their forefathers.

Listen to Psalm 78 beginning in verse 5. For he, God, established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children, that they may set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments, and may not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set its heart aright and whose spirit was not faithful to God." And then for the next, however many verses, through verse 72, it's a history of the stubbornness and rebellion of the people of Israel and the faithfulness of God to bring them back and bring them back and bring them back. But Asaph has written this. It's a survey. It's a summary of the history of Israel so that the people will see the cycles of stubbornness and rebellion and the faithfulness of God in the midst of it all.

Do you understand the power of negative example? How much space in Scripture is devoted to negative example? Failures, sins, rebellion, hard heartedness. Why is it there? Think of how much space is given to it.

How much space? A lot of space. The majority, maybe. A lot. It's there on purpose.

Why is it there? So that we will see our forefathers, the sins of our forefathers, and we will learn The value of history. Listen to Paul in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 11. 1 Corinthians 10 verse 11. Now all these things happen to them as examples.

He's talking about Old Testament history. All these things happen to them as examples. And they were written for our admonition. All those Old Testament things were written for our admonition. They were written for us.

All the accounts of the sins and the hard-heartedness of the forefathers were written for us, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. So we need to come to all this negative example and learn from our forefathers. Our forefathers have scar tissue that we can learn from. We don't have to always learn by making the same mistakes. We can see their scar tissue and say, wow, What they did really causes a wound.

I don't want to do that. It requires coming to those Old Testament texts with a humble heart. Coming to those texts in a certain way. Not to wag our fingers and say, Those idiots! It's the same challenge we've been wrestling with for the last 23 weeks, right?

How do I get myself to be the scribes and the Pharisees so I don't miss the blessing of Matthew 23 and just coming away thinking how smart I am? Thank goodness I'm not like those other men, like the Pharisee in the parable. I thank God that I'm not like that tax collector over there. It requires that we come to all this negative example that God in His providence, in His sovereignty has given to us in the Old Testament. We come with humility to know that we are these men who murdered the prophets.

We are them. We are made out of the same stuff. We have the same bent and dispositions. Our spirits are still joined to a flesh that would take us that way if we don't learn from our forefathers. Are you learning from your forefathers?

Your literal ones? Many of us can look back a generation or two and see terrible mistakes. And how common is it to see children and grandchildren just repeat the sins of a grandfather or a father or a grandmother or a mother. If you had to sit down with a piece of paper and come up with a hundred examples of that, how long would it take you? It would not take you that long.

Within a day, you'd be done and resting. So common to see the sins of grandfathers and grandmothers, fathers and mothers. Just repeat it over again. You better be ready to learn from the sins of your forefathers, your literal ones and your figurative ones that God has given to us for our admonition. Question number two.

So question number one was, are you learning from your forefathers? Question number two, are you decorating monuments of the righteous but stoning the prophets sent to you? Are you putting flowers on the monuments of the righteous from generations past, but stoning the ones that God is sending to you? How many of you have heard on the internet, Paul Washer addressing this crowd. At one point they are applauding and what does he say?

He says, I don't know what you are clapping about, I am talking to you. Have you heard that? They are like, appreciate it, yeah! Preach it brother Washer. He says, what?

Do you not know I'm talking to you? We love that. Yeah. Zing them Paul. And you hear Vodi Bakum zing an audience.

Yeah, get them Voti. Get those guys out there. If you're not Receiving the prophets that God has sent to you. You know you are doing the same thing. I love brother Washer.

That guy can preach and dress down some liberals. Love Vodi Bakam. He will put those compromisers in their place. How are you doing with the prophets that God sends to you to speak with you about your sin? This is the nature of what this text is about.

About people who can appreciate the prophets that are far away, either in geography or in time, but don't deal very well with the ones that God sends to them to speak with them about their own sins. No, no, no. Don't talk to me about that. That's too much law, not enough grace. Your job is just to teach the principles and let us wrestle with the applications.

You're getting way too specific there. I think we're slipping into legalism. Everyone always wants to stone the prophets. A prophet can't get a fair hearing in his own town. You think your heart is inclined to something different than that?

If you haven't identified this in your own heart, you are sadly mistaken. Don't leave the building today without identifying this in your own heart. How are you doing with the men who will confront you about your own sins? Do you like the dead saints better than the living ones? Do you like the far away prophets better than the near ones in your hometown?

Here's my observation. Looking over the last decade, 10 years of data points, the men most prone to theological navel gazing are The ones most likely to be wallowing in secret sin. The ones most prone to obsess about theological fine points are the ones who are addicted to pornography. Ten years of data. I'm not talking about one guy, I'm talking about dozens of guys.

J.C. Ryle says this, Ask in Moses' time, who were the good people? They will be Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but not Moses. He should be stoned. Ask in Samuel's time, who were the good people?

They will be Moses and Joshua, but not Samuel. Ask in the times of Christ who were such. They will be the former prophets with Samuel, but not Jesus and his disciples. This is in the heart of every man to look back in the former generations and just applaud for the godly. But when someone is living a life more holy than yourself and it infringes upon you, the hairs on the back of your neck go up.

And heaven forbid they should speak to you about your own life. You are accountable for all the truth that God gives you. So am I. We're accountable. God sends us truth through whatever vehicle.

You are accountable for that truth. Don't you be quick to dismiss someone who you think is veering into legalism and is too much law and not enough grace because you will be accountable for the truth. You dismiss them. You just brush them off to the side at your own parable. For you, your elders are a significant channel for truth.

For good or ill, we are a significant channel for you. And so in spite of all the shortcomings in our personal lives, in spite of all the imperfections and things that are wrong in our sermons, you're gaining an accountability every week for the truth that flows through these pulpits, every single week. You better be careful about what you brush aside. Here's, hey, there's been a lot among people who have left, there's been a lot of talk about how there's too much law and not enough grace from our pulpits. And particularly Dan.

Okay, So all cards on the table. Are you ready? Are you ready for all cards on the table? Here's my view. If you transported Dan back in time to the godliest generation, wherever and whenever that was, it's not our generation.

If You transported him back and you put him in one of those pulpits and he said the things that he's saying. Just pick any sermon. He preached any of the sermons. The one you think was so full of law, afterwards the leader of that church would put their arm around Dan Horne. I wonder if J.C.

Ryle would be welcome in our pulpits. Now we love Spurgeon. Oh man, you can quote that guy all day long. I wonder if J.C. Ryle would be welcome in our pulpits.

Would he be? Have you read them recently? Have you seen how they step on toes? Have you seen how they apply the Word of God and how specific they are? These are not men who are just teaching the principles and waiting for you to apply it yourself.

No way. Hey, I want to have a pulpit where Charles Spurgeon is Welcome. We need to be a people who would be ready to receive from J.C. Ryle when he brings the wood, when he's ready to step on our toes and look us in the eye and talk to us about our sin and our compromise. So question number one was are you learning from your forefathers?

Question number two was are you decorating the monuments of the righteous but stoning the prophets that are sent to you? Question number three is do you know with the greatest certainty that hell awaits those who reject Jesus? This is what's happening here. These are men who are rejecting Jesus Christ and hell is awaiting them. There is no hope for you.

Every other sin can be forgiven. But when the Holy Spirit comes to convict men of sin and to tell them of the remedy of their sin, and there's a rejection of Jesus Christ, that can never be forgiven. If you die in that state, that will be the sin that condemns you. Jesus Christ was willing to forgive those who repented, but you would not repent. Let's pray.

Our Father, I thank You for this text, and I pray that You would make us a people who are ready when You send us prophets. When You send men to deal with us and our sin, I thank You for the hundred men who have confronted me about my sin during the course of my life and the faith. I pray that you would send more and that you would make me ready to receive them. God I know I've been defensive on many occasions. God help us to be pliable in your hands, pliable, ready to hear from those that you have sent in your kindness as a show of your mercy, not to leave us in sin and compromise, but to speak to these things that are so prevalent in our culture.

Help us, O God, in Jesus' name, amen.